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Product Review ’ Category

If you’ve been following us on FaceySpacey, you’ll know two things: 1) we keep getting banned for days for posting pics of beautiful women and 2) we just found a little stack of Premiere Issue copies.

And if you know that, you’ll know that we’ve put together a very limited edition package of goods to make those 25 copies of our long-sold out AUTOCULT Premiere Issue just a little more special. But let’s back up a little…

If you hadn’t seen it yet, one of our latest shirts, “The A,” has started to ship. Now, we tell you this because it’s already starting to sell out and we’re getting ready to do another run. What we dig about this shirt, beyond the hands that come right from San Francisco’s La Mission District, is that it’s got more length to it, so it doesn’t shrink up on you and make you look like a man-baby. What we also dig is that our tribute to Estevan Oriol wasn’t lost on anyone…

That’s alot to take in, right? So, allow us to explain: the good folks at Mount Vernon, Washington’s plantation in Northern Virginia not far from the square little city named after him, have done a great job of reconstructing his home and everything around it. And an important part of what made Washington such a baller was his distillery. One of the most profitable distilleries of its day. So, it was only a matter of time till the buffs who love that history shit reconstructed the still and started making the whiskey Mount Vernon was so well known for.

Washington was an insanely successful businessman, as well as the first American president. And in his time, whiskey had come to replace rum as the preferred drink of the people because its main ingredients – grains – could be grown at home, making it a helluva lot easier to transport and sell than the sugarcane-based rum coming from the Caribbean. George was also a meticulous record keeper, so his entire process was easy for the ‘nactment folks at the restored Mount Vernon grist mill and still to nerd-out on.

So, we got a note from the guys over at Bell Helmets, asking us to give their newest helmet some juice. Now, we all know Bell: they make helmets and safety stuff for all kinds of racing, biking, riding…the list goes on. And if we were in the position where we thought a helmet was a wise decision, that little red and white oval on the back of the lid we decided to strap on would definitely give us the last bit of comfort as we took a deep breath and did what we were about to do.

But here’s the thing: a Bell helmet is all about safety first, style second. And really, that’s the way it should be, right? Not necessarily. There’s nothing worse than looking like the Great Gazoo as you kick your Knuckle for the fortieth time in front of everyone standing outside the bar smoking. That’s why all those “for novelty purposes only” lids and vintage helmets and newer brands like Ruby are all so popular. If you’ve spent all that blood and sweat and tears building the perfect bike, you sure as hell ain’t gonna take out all the good style in the world with your helmet that your bike put into it, right?

As promised, we’re gonna lift the back corner of the tent and let you peek inside what it takes to produce twelve months of our calendar –– which really means a behind-the-scenes look at the photoshoots we’ve sorta become known for.

We’re kicking off 2013 with a photoshoot we did years and years ago near the shop here in San Francisco. One of our all-time favorites. We had worked with the one and only Karen Kuehn back in the Nineties on some mega-buck photoshoots for corporate advertising clients (skyscraper rooftops in NYC with chocolate truffles and bottles of rare-ass spring water…you get the idea) and we caught her between covershoots for TIME magazine and some book projects she was working on back in 2004.

Yeah, so we’ve been posting up some of our favorite car-n-girl pinup photos and we thought it was time…

…time for the AUTOCULT 2013 limited-edition calendar! Now, if you dig on pinups like the one we shot with Karen Kuehn and Erykah and Dave Tanimura’s Chili Dog Poncho straight-axle, brother, do we have a calendar for you.

SPECIAL FEATURE: YOU
We’re just warming up the most-epic-calendar-of-2013 machine, so as we get started on this project in time to get these to you for the holidays, know this: we’ll also be making the December 2013 shot the Wild Card. Send us a pic of your favorite car with your favorite girl and if we pick it, your shot will be December. And who doesn’t want to be December? Best month of the year.

So, send us a hi-res snap (at least 10″x10″ and 300dpi) of your girl and your car (or at least make sure that you have the right to send us the pic you’re going to send us) and email it to:

info@autoculture.org

If we pick yours, we’ll contact you no later than 10/31/12 with the good news. But shhhhh…don’t tell anyone. We want it to be a surprise, right?

We’ll be selling the calendar right here in our store, so keep your eyes peeled –– we’ll be posting updates and let you in on a few extra goodies that we’ll be adding to the mix. In the meantime, warm up that iPhone and send us your pics! No limit to the entries per person, so the more the better. And keep checking back for more updates!

We dig old Ford flatheads –– certainly not for their mph capability, but because they just look cool. And besides an early centrifugal blower topping one off, it’s hard to beat a set of braided cloth wires coming out of one of those ‘crab’ dizzy caps. Just sets off the motor, especially if it’s running a set of rare, polished aluminum heads. Neat stuff.

So, you’ll know where we’re coming from when we first laid eyes on the Apple charger cords designed by Eastern Collective. It ain’t like we’re claiming they’re patterned off a set of early cloth wires –– we doubt anyone at Eastern Collective even knows what a flathead is –– but, we dig that they made these replacement cords to remind us of them, nonetheless. Noting that these folks are based in Vermont, we’d venture a guess that these bitchin’ power cords are prolly made more in the likeness of mountain climbing ropes or camping tie-downs or aging naked Burning Man hippy restraints or some other crunchy nonsense. And they not only look kewl, but they’re made to resist the twisties that every one of our dang Apple cords succumb to after about a year and then tear their casings right where the cord enters the plastic male ends.

Get yours right (here) in a few different patterns and make your life just that much easier. But we still say they remind us of flathead wires and we dig that, so whatever.

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Erik Brunetti’s FUCT brand. He’s been putting out limited runs of some of the most notorious street culture pieces of the last two decades (has it been that long? damn…) and some of the latest FUCT line is some of our favorite.

Socks? Sure, why not? We’re big fans of a good sock. The kind of sock that makes a statement. And we’re not talking about those goofy pattern deals that wick away moisture and are made of free-range Lycra and recycled milk jugs from Patagonia. None of that tree-hugger shit for us. No, we’re talking about the Death Bunny Sock from the Brunetti studio. Available in white on black or the exact opposite, it’s the kind of thing that should be worn strategically to subtly explain exactly who people are dealing with when your pant leg rides up and exposes the art on the shaft. That’s right. Art on the shaft. Deal with it.

Find more right (here) and let us know if you find a pair still in stock.

But there was another poster, also produced by the Trikilis’ Pro-Arts in Ohio, that was the counter to the Farah poster. The poster for the high school guys who cut holes in the hoods of late-model Chevelles to make room for the tunnel ram. The one for the guys who didn’t just smoke weed, but had the connection in Mexico. The preferred wall art for the dude who not only could score tickets for the Molly Hatchet show, but actually knew Bobby Liebling from Pentagram. The guy who knew some shit, man. Coolest guy in the room. That poster was known simply as “Study Hard.”

This week on Product Review Tuesday, we bring you our own tribute to that lesser-known icon of Seventies wall art: the “Work Hard” Limited Edition. Way we figure it, the poster is cool –– so we made our own version of it –– but what’s cooler than that is making your own real-world version of it, so we made the t-shirt, too.

The Work Hard Ltd. Ed. package consists of the 18″x24″ poster and our women’s white ringer tee featured in it. While the poster only comes in one size, the chick t-shirt comes in all the sizes you might need. We’re only making 50 packages and you can’t get one without the other, hence the “package.” But, when you place your order, you’ll know that only 49 other guys have the poster and only 49 other girls can rock the ringer tee.

See that? Little something for everyone. Think of the Work Hard Limited Edition as inspiration and motivation and get yours right (here). Order with confidence and know that there’s a little sumpn’ extra in each package we send out…

If you’re old enough to remember, there was a time when a pair of Vans separated you from the crowd. They were counterculture, friend. You were part of a club that, if you saw another kid wearing them, meant you both knew some shit. Like, you were aware of some stuff going on in the world just under the surface of everything else. And the further away from California you happened to be, the harder it was to get a pair of Vans. So, when you found that one shop in town that had the Vans catalog under the counter, you’d find a ride over there and custom-order your next pair and hope to Christ you’d find enough money to cover the $35.00 it was gonna cost to pick ‘em up in three weeks.

Ah, those were the days. Imagine how much we could squeeze out of a hipster for one of those original Vans catalogs if we had the foresight to keep one thirty years ago…

Welp, Vans has become an international cult of its own personality and we’d like to think we had some small hand in that for the dozens and dozens of pairs we’ve shredded over the years. Now, the latest: this week’s Product Review Tuesday is dedicated to the Vans iPhone case. Fashioned with the unmistakeable waffle sole on the back, the iconic “Off The Wall” red heel tag on the side, the foxing stripe around the front edge and available in black, white and pink, the only thing we deem sucky is that we can’t order one to match our Hutch Windstyler.

You know Vans. You know the sole. You know the rubber. We just wonder if the new case has that wonderful glue aroma that comes with every new pair of Vans we’ve ever owned. Get yours (here), just in time for the newly redesigned iPhone to be released so that no existing case will fit it. That’s OK–we’ll buy the next one, too.